Catering For Comfort In Cars

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22909, 11 December 1937, Page 12 (Supplement)

Catering For Comfort In Cars

si AFTER concentrating for several years on appearance the motor industry has settled down to developing tho more important quality of comfort —that, I think, will bo the verdict of the motor show visitors to Earls Court," states Lord Austin in his motor show message. "Gone this year are the freak designs and instead the public has seen cars that are as elegant as one could wish for, but which, in addition, display very positive and practical comfort features. "Motoring comfort to-day consists primarily in providing an erect, well-

i " Keeping It Fresh

I One problem confronting the tour- ; : ing motorist is to find a suitable place : [ to carry such perishable goods as meat » : or fish in the car. Old hands on the : ■ road assert that there is no better j : place than the front bumper. Trout, : ■ freshly caught, or meat for the eoen- j : ing meal, carefully Wrapped in a : ! clean sugar bag and securely tied to j : the front bumper, gets all the draught \ : and no fumes from the engine. The j i sugar bag adequately protects sup- : I plies carried in this manner from the \ | dust of cars ahead. ■

supported driving position with all essential controls to hand, plenty of visibility up to a few feet from the front wheels of the vehicle, and roomy passenger accommodation. Comfort is, in fact, being considered as a safety factor, for the driver who is not correctly seated for controlling the car, free from distracting strain, will not

handle his vehiclo with that precision and assurance which modern motoring conditions demand. "In this tendency to put practicability first, some may see a decline in the woman's influence on motoring; such a conclusion would, I am sure, be a mistake. Jly own feeling is that the woman motorist, having passed her novitiate, now considers the choice of a car from a very practical angle, much as sho views the modern house, namely, as an efficient device for living in.

"We do not like to think that women's influence on motoring is to be nothing more than a demand for new fashions and exotic lines. "What does this year's immense exhibition augur for the motor industry's future?" Lord Austin asks. "I have always been the optimist; perhaps I have had justification; anyway, while seven per cent of the world's population owns over 70 per cent of its cars—l refer to tho United States of America —I am sure that there is plenty of scopo for tho British industry in catering for world-wide demand.

"Earls Court, magnificent as it is as an example of one industry's resources and enterprise, must not bo considered as tho peak of the motor industry's progress. It is just another stage in the development of our industry in an endeavour to meet mankind's growing needs for economical and dependable personal transport."